Multi-optical fiber connector modules are used to mechanically couple the ends of a plurality of optical fibers to a parallel optical communications module that has a plurality of optical channels. The parallel optical communications module may be a parallel optical transceiver module having both transmit and receive optical channels, a parallel optical transmitter module having only transmit optical channels, or a parallel optical receiver module having only receive optical channels. A typical multi-optical fiber connector module includes an optics system that couples light between the ends of the optical fibers and respective optoelectronic devices that are contained within the parallel optical communications module. For transmit optical channels, the optoelectronic devices are electrical-to-optical converters such as laser diodes or light-emitting diodes (LEDs). For receive optical channels, the optoelectronic devices are optical-to-electrical converters such as photodiodes.
The multi-optical fiber connector modules and the parallel optical communications modules typically have mating features on them that allow the multi-optical fiber connector modules to be fixedly or removably mechanically coupled to one another. A variety of multi-optical fiber connector modules and parallel optical communications modules exist in the market today that are designed to mate with one another in a way that optically aligns the optical pathways between the ends of the optical fibers and the ends of the respective optoelectronic devices to enable optical data signals to be coupled between ends of the optical fibers and the respective optoelectronic devices. In designing and manufacturing the multi-optical fiber connector modules and the corresponding parallel optical communications modules, great care is taken to ensure that once the modules are mated together very precise optical alignment exists along the optical pathways.
A variety of passive and active optical alignment techniques and tools are used today to provide the precise optical alignment that is needed to prevent unacceptable optical losses from occurring. Unacceptable optical losses lead to signal degradation, which can lead to an unacceptable bit error rate (BER). When the multi-optical fiber connector modules and the corresponding parallel optical communications modules are manufactured, the manufacturing tolerances typically must be extremely tight in order to ensure that very precise optical alignment exists along the optical pathways when the modules are mechanically coupled to one another in their ultimate relative positions and orientations. Otherwise, the optical alignment along the optical pathways will not have sufficient precision to prevent unacceptable optical losses from occurring. However, manufacturing the modules with very tight mechanical tolerances increases manufacturing costs, which increases the overall costs of the modules. In addition, the requirement of having to achieve very tight mechanical tolerances can lead to a decrease in yield for the modules, which also increases the overall costs of the modules.
Many connector modules are designed and manufactured to include passive alignment features, such as key/keyway mating features, which guide the modules into optical alignment with another mating module or receptacle as they are mechanically coupled together. For example, the opening in a receptacle guides a mating connector module into course alignment with the receptacle and then passive alignment features in the receptacle and on the connector module then mate to bring the optical pathways of the connector module into fine, or precise, optical alignment with the optical pathways of the receptacle. While such passive alignment features generally work well for their intended purposes, they are not suitable for simultaneous blind mating of multiple connector modules with multiple respective mating modules or receptacles.
For example, for a server box that has multiple multi-fiber connector modules disposed on it that must be mated with corresponding multi-fiber connector modules disposed on a printed circuit board (PCB) of a backplane, the connector modules disposed on the server box are required to be individually manually interconnected with the respective connector modules disposed on the backplane using optical cables. As examples, in the case of LC optical connectors, an LC-to-LC optical cable is used to make the interconnection whereas in the case of MTP® optical connectors, an MTP-to-MTP optical cable is used to make the interconnection. Making these interconnections can be a difficult and time-consuming task.
A need exists for methods, apparatuses and systems that enable a bank of multi-optical fiber connector modules disposed on one structure to be simultaneously blind mated with another bank of connector modules disposed on another structure, thereby obviating the need to individually manually interconnect the connector modules.